The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
I may have spoken to soon - some biggies reported after hours. Looks less like a seller and more like some positions closing
I think it’s worth remembering when we talk about scaling the business where they’ve come from. It’s quite amazing imo how they’ve now got 27 boom battle bars and 49 escape rooms, bearing in mind they only started BBB back in late 2021. This is in spite of covid, cost of living, train strikes etc. in fact they were able to take advantage of covid by getting lease deals in prime locations at favourable rates. I think this phase of slowing down openings of sites and proving it can be a profitable, successful business is right strategy and then can go to next phase of scaling up after.
So we still seemingly have a seller....or a shorter still hanging on?
Very strange - not the time to sell this stock if you are here for the business case
Good post Chapel. I too noticed the H2 start had been good, which seems to have gone a little under the radar.
Also for Boom we had very few sites this time last year so the Christmas period should have a significant impact YoY. Similarly there should only be 1 weekend impacted by train strikes which is also an improvement on last year.
For me this looks undervalued - revenues are growing quickly, it is cash generative and it is now using some of this cash to re-invest in new stores or buying up franchise sites. A small maiden profit would really be ideal now.
From the interim results RNS Sep 28th things were looking very positive and if train strikes are less this year then should see a good Christmas. Wondering when they will start opening new Boom Battle Bars and drive the econmies of scale
POST PERIOD END TRADING AND OUTLOOK
Trading bounced back strongly in July after the seasonally quieter months of May and June.
The resilient performance continued throughout the summer.
Like for like growth within the Boom owner operated estate was 25% and within the Escape Hunt® owner operated estate was 23% in the nine weeks to 3 September 2023.
Margins within Boom saw further, steady improvements and Escape Hunt® has continued to operate at margins in line with those achieved in the first six months of the year.
Whilst remaining alert to the ongoing pressures on consumers, cost pressures in the business and the seasonal significance of the end of the year, strong corporate sales and ongoing operational improvements provide confidence of an outcome for the full year in line with current market expectations.
He also bought another £30ks worth not long ago. I’m sure he’s seeing something he likes.
Looks like seller may have slowed for sure and hopefully this is the inflection point - sweet spot - where we see a nice rise from here 🙏
It’s about time!
So good to see COO buying in, £35k worth, probably not a great deal to him , but it's not small change either, and a sign that he is confident in how the business is growing, can only instill confidence
XP Factory (AIM: XPF), a global leader in the experiential leisure sector, was notified on 5 December 2023 that Andrew Jacobs, Chief Operating Officer of the Company, on the same day acquired 233,227 ordinary shares of 1.25 pence in the Company at a price of 15.0 pence per share.
As a result, Andrew Jacobs' total beneficial interest in the Company has increased to 1,303,684 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.75 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.
No idea how or why the SP sunk to these lows - it seemed to get stuck in a downtrend
As my previous blogs have stated. This is the AIM market. It is corrupt with manufactured share pricing and insider dealings. Let’s just hope they keep the upward momentum going now.
I have added, hopefully we have seen the bottom and good time to buy
Don't want to tempt fate but is our seller slowing down a bit??
A nice £35k buy at the end of the day
No idea how or why the SP sunk to these lows - it seemed to get stuck in a downtrend
XP almost certainly enjoying their most successful sales to date
GLA, Please DYOR
I do think there is a global shift happening on how we all socialise. This article is talking about the USA market;
https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/insights/from-putt-to-pint-everyone-wins-with-competitive-socializing
It’s says: “According to Cushman & Wakefield research, competitive socializing concepts have grown 386% since the beginning of 2021.”
I do think both boom battle bars and escape rooms are so scalable, domestically and internationally. I’m sure big players in the leisure industry are eyeing this up at this level personally. It’s in a growing market and due to do around 40mil revenue and at 24mil mcap. Seems a no brainer to me. I’d be interested to see if someone can give me a compelling argument otherwise.
They have escape rooms in: Uk, Portugal, Spain, France, quatar, UAE, USA, Norway, Netherlands, Kuwait, Belgium , Australia. Plus they opened their first international boom bar in Dubai, July if I remember correctly. This is what the ceo said in interims as a main focus;
“2. Accelerate growth in international territories, ultimately through franchise
We opened our first international Boom Battle Bar® in Dubai and are actively exploring possibilities in other territories. In the short term, however, our focus will remain the UK with the aim of developing a robust, defensible business capable of international franchise.”
And also copied and paste from interims;
“Initial analysis supports our expectation that in the longer-term, we see an opportunity to scale the business considerably domestically and internationally, with a market opportunity of +50 Escape Hunt® and +100 Boom Battle Bar® sites in the UK alone.
Internationally, our Dubai site has opened ahead of expectations and we see a significant opportunity in time to roll out our proven concept overseas with reduced execution risk.”
I know from most recent interview that they’re looking to increases their target for amount of sites also.
I think it's a little unfair to compare the business from 2017 considering the company only purchased the Boom Battle Bar brand on 3rd November 2021. I have no problem with a slowed international growth as I feel there is no point running before you can walk. They rolled out 27 BBB sites last year and although the pace has slowed recently , they have been repurchasing master franchise's from existing sites, which will only add to their economies of scale. There is also a high level of institutional Investors in this stock who have all purchased higher than this price as it's almost at atl. The scale of the enhanced estate should show in the full year results . I have my work Christmas party at the newly opened Canterbury branch next week and I will report back on how I feel it was , business wise and experience wise. I am confident in this stock.
There is a pattern here. It has lost 90%+ of value since the original float in 2017 and directors seem happy with this looking to future growth fuelled by expansion in EH and BBB. All intl growth stopped and focus solely UK and no news to the point where financial comms is non-existent. Statements show shares hyper diluted from directors SIPS plan, salaries very high and admin expenses also high and not detailed. Maybe a bit of a retirement fund for a handful of people in the SIPS? Good news is the stock has to fly once they have bought enough to retire!
I'm going to make a prediction that we have seen the bottom
Justin Waite talked positively last week and seemed intent on buying back in
Some great contributions to this BB in recent weeks
I did a "mystery customer' enquiry at three venues to suss out Xmas party availability - it sounds like they are really busy and a great opportunity for XPF to report some record numbers
I genuinely beleive we could be looking at the next Hollywood Bowl here _ I'm just not convinced whether it will be under this owenrship structure or whether Private Equity will snap this up and join it up with some of the other players in experiencial and competitive leisure
With regards to BBB Cardiff I have confidence that xpf management are aware of the issues there, so I'm sure they will be addressed. A refurb/refresh to bring up to standard of the recent venues sounds like it could help. From a maintenance point of view BBB will be more demanding than the escape hunt side of the business. There are BBB doing new year's eve party events with paid entry so there is a bit of diversification there away from just offering paid games, I'm guessing this will be more suitable to the sites that have space for that sort of thing.
Thanks for the share. I had a look at a few of the GMs - some talented employees
I think the Cardiff venue is a bit of a different beast. More of a nightclub venue, so you get the usual issues, people giving crappy reviews as they are refused entry, stuff like that.
May need a refurb though, I saw this yesterday so maybe they are working through the original venues
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7136414002917576704?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7136414002917576704%29
Nice post Cheezer
It's generally accepted that is you have a bad experience you are more likely to review and or tell lots of people
There will always be times when people have a bade experience - so if reviews are mostly positive - that is a good sign
And hopefuly, if management are all over the reviews as you say, they will address the issues in Cardiff
We can all go visit the venues and see for ourselves how they're doing, personally I visited 3 so far, and have generally been impressed. I've also traulled through numerous reviews online for all the venues. These are my takeaways.
The positives
- People that visit most venues have fun, like the vibe and the games.
- Many say they will return.
- The staff at the majority of the venues get good reviews and make the games more fun for customers.
- Management are all over the reviews responding to positive and negative points and asking for further feedback on the negative ones.
- Staff seem happy to let gamers have a bit of extra time when the venues are less busy for no extra cost.
- Most venues had 4.5 to 5 star rating.
The negatives
- BBB Cardiff seems to be having issues, it sounds like it's poorly managed, poor staff, not clean (trashy was mentioned more than once), slow service, also staff have reviewed it negatively here. Does sound like it's very busy though which probably doesn't help the above.
- Some games are broken, seems to be crazy golf having the majority of issues here at various venues, I had similar experience in Exeter BBB.
- Rude or uninterested Staff, again seems isolated but quite a common cause for complaints.
- Bookings either not getting enough time or slow to setup games.
Why post this, Personally I feel like customer experience here will be the make or break of this company, if we are excellent in this area then this should be reflected in the amount of customers visiting and the SP/Financial results. Cheers
Agree with you - I was also taught that charts etc were nonsense.
But a lot of traders believe there is a lot to learn from them
I'm not having a go, up to him what he does with his money.
Just saying you never heard Munger say he sold out because it was stuck in a range, I don't think the story has changed
I'm still hopeful. As the saying goes, I don't want to sell down here, still hopeful they are turning a profit
His portfolio was doing brilliantly - and then went into decline during the bear market
He genuinely bought a lot of Escape Hunt at an avg of sub 10p. The SP went north of 30p before starting to fall.
Not sure what he sold at, but he saw it drop a long way from 30p
He'd ignored the downtrend because he was such a fan of the company
He then chose to change his strategy - sold most of his positions in small companies to hold cash and a fund.